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Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, who was trying to convince council to reconsider already-approved plans to build light rail transit along Finch Ave., decided using his words was not enough on Wednesday. Instead, he hoped a sandwich would do the trick.

At an unusually testy executive committee meeting, Mayor John Tory was served up a foot-long submarine sandwich after he served up some smack down of his own.

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, who was trying to convince council to reconsider already-approved plans to build light rail transit along Finch Ave., decided using his words was not enough on Wednesday.

Instead — thanks to a staff member who brought the goods into the second-floor committee room — Mammoliti presented the mayor of this country's largest city, mid-meeting, with a sandwich, still in the green and yellow wrapping.

Words were exchanged, the mayor laughed good-naturedly and the two men shook hands. What was said is unclear, but Mammoliti provided the media a two-paragraph press release on paper to explain his intentions.

“You can’t get an LRT at Subway, they only sell subways by the foot and that mirrors what we need in the city,” the release said. “I’ll buy every member of council one foot of Subway sandwich if it will make them understand how important it is to find another option.”

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Later, Mammoliti answered honestly that he was using the sandwich to get reporters’ attention before the item was debated at committee.

Mammoliti was not in the room when committee voted to defer his recommendations indefinitely.

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti hands over a Subway sandwich to Mayor John Tory in the middle of a council meeting to make a point on the other kind of subway. (Jennifer Pagliaro/Toronto Star)

Earlier, new-sheriff-in-town Tory had his own bite-sized takedown of Councillor Jim Karygiannis.

The councillor, who does not sit on executive committee, was set to question a speaker when Tory dealt him a few words of caution.

“I’ll just give you a friendly warning, sir,” Tory began. “All deputants, no matter what their point of view will be treated with respect and I just won’t be putting up with anything that castigates people, regardless of what their opinion is, who’ve come before us and spent their time to come here and represent their views. So, I just would put that on notice. This is the new city hall, not the old one.”

After a stunned silence, there was a small smattering of applause.

A day earlier, Karygiannis and his new-found council ally Mammoliti could be seen finger-wagging and raising their voices at speakers during a debate at the licensing committee — where they are both members.

Councillor Josh Matlow, who is also a member of the licensing committee, tweeted after the meeting: "I find most members of council to be truly kind, well meaning & respectful. But there are few whose behaviour is nothing less than shameful."

At the lunch break on Wednesday, Tory told reporters he thought what took place at the licensing committee was a "disgrace."

"It was disrespectful to the public and I don’t care what anybody’s view or their political stripe, or anything else about them, when they come here to city hall as citizens of this city and want to make a deputation provided they act in a civilized manner, they should be treated no differently," the mayor said.

Tory added that he did not eat the sandwich provided free-of-charge from Mammoliti.

The Star could not verify if the sandwich was in fact a Subway Club or if it indeed had extra cheese on it as advertised by Mammoliti’s office.

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At the lunch break on Wednesday, Tory told reporters he thought what took place at the licensing committee was a "disgrace."

"It was disrespectful to the public and I don’t care what anybody’s view or their political stripe, or anything else about them, when they come here to city hall as citizens of this city and want to make a deputation provided they act in a civilized manner, they should be treated no differently," the mayor said.

Tory added that he did not eat the sandwich provided free-of-charge from Mammoliti.

The Star could not verify if the sandwich was in fact a Subway Club or if it indeed had extra cheese on it as advertised by Mammoliti’s office.

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